Author: Publisher

{{Sibomana Jean D’amour 23 today attempted to end his life after he climbed on top of an electric piron and threatened to electorcute himself to death}}

The fearless Sibomana claimed he wanted to terminate his life because he wasnt getting enough food at Gisimba orphanage where he lives.

Dozens of onlookers gathered at the scene and watched worried as though waiting for Sibomana’s destruction by electrocution.

However, EWSA disconnected power on the transmission line

{{Question reverberated across continents this week when the anniversary of the Rwandan genocide rekindled longstanding diplomatic tension between Rwanda and France.

PARIS — Is it possible to commemorate a world tragedy without opening old wounds?}}

The acrimony between their political leaders centers on France’s role in the tragedy, which was thrust back into the open by sharp remarks from Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, on the eve of somber ceremonies to mark the 1994 genocide.

France, he said, bore part of the responsibility for the carnage that killed more than 800,000 people, mostly members of the Tutsi minority.

In the years leading up to the genocide, the French government supported the government of Rwanda, which was then dominated by the Hutu majority, helping to equip, arm and, according to many, train the Rwandan military.

Many of those same military forces later spearheaded the slaughter of Tutsis after Rwanda’s president at the time, Juvenal Habyarimana, was killed in April 1994.

French political leaders responded defensively, canceling plans for the French justice minister to attend the commemoration and, in most cases, angrily denouncing Mr. Kagame’s assertions.

What might have been a moment to foster reconciliation between the two countries instead inflamed old resentments and illustrated how both nations still struggle to come to terms with the horrifying events two decades ago.

As the genocide unfolded and France continued to support the Hutu government, French troops were in the lead among peacekeeping forces sent to Rwanda under a United Nations mandate to offer humanitarian aid and protect civilians on all sides.

During an especially contentious episode that continues to provoke conflicting assessments, the area where French forces were assigned to protect civilians, both Tutsis and Hutus fleeing the violence, became the site of further killing by Hutu forces.

In addition, many of the perpetrators of the genocide fled the country along roads that went through the French-patrolled area, which was supposed to be a humanitarian corridor.

Varying views have emerged on whether the French presence simply proved insufficient, or whether the French were actually countenancing or even supporting the Hutu attackers.

Mr. Kagame this week said that the French were indeed guilty of “participation” in massacres within the humanitarian zone.

Beyond that, a number of Hutus suspected of being involved in the genocide later fled Rwanda and settled in France.

Yet no significant French legal action was taken against them until this year, when the first — and, so far, only — French prosecution of such an émigré on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity occurred in Paris.

“It is unacceptable to lay blame on France,” Alain Juppé, France’s foreign affairs minister in 1994, wrote on his blog in response to Mr. Kagame’s assertions that French soldiers were “actors” in the genocide.

“I call on the president of the Republic and the French government to defend without ambiguity the honor of France, the honor of its army, the honor of its diplomats.”

France has long struggled with confronting polarizing periods in its history, including the war in Algeria from 1954 to 1962 and the period of Nazi collaboration during World War II.

In the case of Rwanda, French officials seemed particularly resentful of Mr. Kagame’s allegations because, they said, they had done more than many nations to try to protect civilians.

“In France, there are so many things to face,” said André Guichaoua, an expert on Rwanda who teaches sociology at the Sorbonne.

Intensifying France’s anger was that the accusations came from Mr. Kagame, a complex leader who has been accused of supporting rebel movements in the Democratic Republic of Congo and ruthlessly suppressing political rivals.

He is alternately viewed as a savior of his battered country and as an authoritarian ruler willing to kill opponents rather than tolerate challenges to his government.

Édouard Balladur, the prime minister at the time of the Rwandan massacre, termed Mr. Kagame’s charges of French complicity and responsibility “a self-interested lie.” France, he said, “of all the countries in the world is the only one that took the initiative to organize a humanitarian operation in order to avoid a generalized massacre.”

There is a need for “acknowledging errors, yes, but acknowledging inventions, no,” Professor Guichaoua said, referring to Mr. Kagame’s broad indictment of the French. “It is for the justice system to rule on the crimes committed.”

But France has also shown an unwillingness to fully investigate and discuss its role in Rwanda, a stance that contrasts rather strikingly with the soul-searching of leaders in other countries.

Former President Bill Clinton, for instance, again expressed regret last year that he had not proposed an American intervention earlier in Rwanda, telling an interviewer, “If we’d gone in sooner, I believe we could have saved at least a third of the lives that were lost.”

“It had an enduring impact on me,” Mr. Clinton said.

In Belgium, the other country that Mr. Kagame blamed for the Rwandan tragedy, there was a public inquiry into the country’s role, a point emphasized by a rare dissident voice in France, that of Bernard Kouchner, a co-founder of Doctors Without Borders and a foreign minister during the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr. Kouchner urged the French government to follow the example of Belgium and hold an open parliamentary debate with a judicial commission. The Green Party called for an opening of France’s government archives, and the lead editorial on Tuesday in Le Monde, viewed as France’s newspaper of record, advised the same.

“We were on a broad path of reconciliation,” Mr. Kouchner told RTL radio on Sunday, referring to an easing of tension between France and Rwanda that accelerated under Mr. Sarkozy. Now, he said, “we are going backward, which is deplorable.”

So they decided to shake hands and say : “Let bygones be bygones”?

{author is resident in Greece}

{{Rwanda peacekeepers serving in Mali and Abyei, on April 7, paid tribute to the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi as the country held the 20th edition of the massacre which claimed more than one million lives.}}

The Rwandan peacekeepers were joined by other peacekeeping forces and UN staff, local leaders and residents in the commemoration.

In Abyei, a disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan, a UN flag was held at half-mast in respect of innocent lives that perished during the Genocide as the world watched.

Chief Supt. Oswald Nkaka, attributed the genocide to bad politics introduced in Rwanda by colonialists who, through their divide and rule policy, created “fictitious classes among Rwandan” thus sowing the seeds of hatred which led to the 1994 genocide.

CSP Nkaka added that despite the despicable atrocities, the “Rwandan spirit has never died and today this spirit leads us into a bright future.”

He explained that Rwanda and her leaders are today hosting and participating in all important peace building forums sends its Police and military forces to maintain and bring peace in other countries.

Lt. Gen. Yohannes Tesfamariam, the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFSA) force command and head of mission, challenged the global community, which had the ability but unwilling to stop the extermination of Tutsis, to work together to prevent a repeat of such atrocities in the future.

“Let us take the lessons from this terrible experience to nurture a culture of trust and understanding for us to live together as brothers and sisters,” Gen Tesfamariam said.

“If this option to live together in peace in this planet is undermined, the other option in front of all of us is to perish together as fools,” he added.

In Mali, the Governor of Gao region, Oumar Baba Sidibe, who was the guest of honor at the commemoration event, thanked Rwandans for their resilience and resolve to lift their country out of ashes and to maintain and bring peace in other countries.

Chief Supt. Bertin Mutezintare, the contingent commander of Rwanda Formed Police Unit in Mali said the country embarked on unite and reconciliation to build a new nation, which has paved way for rapid economic growth.

The Mayor of Gao city Sadou Harouna Djallo and over 1500 residents of Gao also attended the commemoration ceremony.

{{Murders have gone down worldwide but half of them still occur in countries with just 11% of the global population, in the Americas and Africa, a new UN report found Thursday.}}

The UN office on drugs and crime said 437 000 people were murdered in 2012, compared to 468 000 in 2010, the first year its global study on homicide was conducted.

Central America and southern Africa had rates of 26 and 30 people killed for every 100 000, more than four times the world average.

Half of all victims were under 30, 80% were men as were 95% of perpetrators, UNODC said.

“There is an urgent need to understand how violent crime is plaguing countries around the world, particularly affecting young men but also taking a heavy toll on women,” said UNODC policy analysis director Jean-Luc Lemahieu.

While men tended to be killed by an unknown assailant, women were most often murdered by somebody close to them, the report noted.

“Home can be the most dangerous place for a woman,” said Lemahieu.

In North and Latin America, gang-related homicides made up 30% of the total, compared to less than one percent in Asia, Europe and Oceania, where the share of murders from domestic violence was higher.

Firearms were the weapon of choice in four out of 10 murders.

UNODC also found that only 43% of murders resulted in a conviction.

– AFP

{{The Rwandan Community in Malayisa (RCM), comprised mainly of university students, together with friends and empathizers of Rwanda in Malaysia, organized and held a commemoration event to mark 20 years since the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda.}}

The event, which was organized by the RCM leadership committee with support from the Rwandan High Commission in Singapore, attracted an estimated 200 people that comprised mainly of Rwandan and various other international students as well as friends of Rwanda living in Malaysia.

The event was hosted at the INTI International University in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, and was also attended by several senior officials of the University.

The event started off with a walk to remember around Nilai district where the campus is located and also featured a movie about the Rwandan genocide as well as speeches from student representatives, university officials and the invited representative from the Rwandan High Commission in Singapore, Mr. Lucas J Murenzi.

The speakers reflected on the causes of the genocide, its magnitude, the process of healing and recovering as well as the various developmental achievements that Rwanda has recorded in the 20 years after the genocide.

They also pointed out Rwanda’s magnificent contribution in international peacekeeping missions bent mainly on protecting populations under threat of mass massacre or genocide.

The visibly touched participants mainly commended the positive energy in the Rwanda youths present and noted that it was an indication that Rwanda has indeed vowed decisively that the genocide should never happen again in Rwanda or elsewhere.